Tag: writing

Doctor Who Audio Review: The Doctor Has So Much Fixing To Do

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Doctor Who: Fixers brings another trilogy of adventures featuring the Seventh Doctor from Big Finish Productions, and he has an interesting new companion for this round. Sylvester McCoy is joined by Sara Griffiths, reprising her role as Ray, who was first introduced many years ago in the television serial, Delta and the Bannermen. This set is brought to us under the direction of Samuel Clemens.

The guest cast is comprised of Rhian Crowley-Mclean, Celia Imrie, Poppy Miller, Anne Odeke, Marc Silk, Sion Tudor Owen, and Annie Wallace.

Chris Chapman is first up to the plate with his script entitled The Executor. The Doctor receives word of the death of Time Lady known as Peg and is tasked with taking responsibility for her TARDIS. The Doctor and Ray find that there is something else aboard, and he has to call upon her hologram to lend assistance.

This is a strong start to the set. Imrie’s portrayal of Peg is quite engaging, and she sparks off McCoy’s performance quite effectively. I was a little unsure of how much I would enjoy bringing Ray aboard the TARDIS, but my doubts were quickly assuaged. Griffiths brings a more mature version of the character than was seen in the television serial, and it works.

This is a pretty intriguing story because it does add another layer to the Doctor’s history without a lot of explanation as to what the nature of the relationship between him and this new, now deceased Time Lady.

Oil and Water, written by James McDermott, is the almost obligatory plotline warning us all about the dangers of pollution. In this case, mutated seals are killing people, and it seems that some sentient well of oil is at the heart of the tragedy. The Doctor and Ray have to contend with a grieving woman who is hungry for vengeance. Also, it seems that seals are not the only ones possessed by this unique presence.’

It’s an interesting idea, but the growing friendship between the Doctor and Ray carries it through more than the actual story. I found it to be once again a little too politically heavy-handed, but it’s not the first time that Doctor Who has almost bludgeoned the audience with this topic.

McCoy and Griffiths still make this worth the time as well as the other performances. It just isn’t going on the list of favorites for this listener.

Finally, Much Ado About Racing by Fio Tretheway, finishes up this set with the Doctor and Ray coming across some kind of galactic race between two women who are apparently bitter rivals but with a more complicated history. Ray is hearing a voice in her head that is bringing old regrets from her past. The Doctor finds there is another entity at work feeding on others’ sorrow.

It was a better episode than the second one but not as strong as the first.

The set started off pretty strong, but the remaining two stories didn’t quite hold my interest as well as the first episode. Still, the performances make this work, and I like Ray travelling with the Doctor for this collection. She is not done yet apparently.

Overall, it’s an enjoyable addition to the Big Finish catalog. None of the stories need to be ignored entirely. I think a couple of them could use a bit of fixing, but the set still functions pretty well as a whole.

In the meantime, I will wait for the next installment with the Doctor and Ray together at the TARDIS console. This should be a fun journey as it usually is when it comes to Doctor Who.

Book Review: The People Have Their Say Thanks To Zinn

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn doesn’t come across as an unbiased view of the illustrious existence of the likely most influential nation on this planet. To be fair, no one can likely achieve the state of complete objectivity, so I don’t hold anything against Zinn, although I would likely disagree with many of his conclusions and opinions if we had ever been able to meet.

Zinn’s objective is to highlight the policies and decisions that the federal government enacted over the relatively few centuries it existed that impacted the common citizen the most. He hits the highlights and lowlights of this country pretty thoroughly and does come off as quite critical of his own country. That is his right, and I applaud him for presenting a book that I found to be pretty well-written. I do not normally read history books on my own, so I do not have much of a comparison to make to other works of this kind at this time.’

I do applaud Zinn for acknowledging his biases in the afterword, so I can respect him as a writer even though I suspect that there are perspectives that may have been overlooked in this particular work. There again, one can likely make a credible case for that in just about every book of this genre.

This is a well-known presentation of the country’s history and was referenced in at least one popular movie that I know of.

Anyway, Zinn seems to have been quite diligent in his research and throws quite a bit at the reader. It’s a tough read for someone just indulging their curiosity, but I still enjoyed making the effort. I am not sure how much I will be able to retain, however it still seems worth the time,

This book comes with a reputation, and it seems to be derided by many of those on the conservative side of the political spectrum. Those criticisms likely have some validity, but I would still recommend adding this to the reading queue.

I am returning to a more familiar genre in my next read with Last Voyage by British mystery writer, Anna Clarke.

Doctor Who Audio Review: A Reality Without The Doctor Scarcely Bears Thinking About

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Doctor Who: The Haunted Windmill is an audio boxset from Big Finish Productions which has the Second Doctor, played by Michael Troughton, escape into an alternative reality where his various interventions in Earth’s troubles never happened. There are three episodes all written by Alan Barnes and directed by Nicholas Briggs.

Troughton continues his efforts to channel the spirit of his late father, Patrick Troughton, and bring a fairly impressive vocal performance that at times almost matches the elder’s. Anyway, I really like the Second Doctor, and Barnes is a reliable writer who once again delivers a solid contribution to the lore.

Fraser Hines returns to the mic as Jamie McCrimmon and a descendent of his, who is revealed. Wendy Padbury is also on deck, returning as Zoe Herriot. Other familiar characters from the Doctor’s past also gather around him in spite of the unfamiliar circumstances.

Also, this TARDIS team has picked up another companion in the form of the Time Lady, known as Raven, who is portrayed by Emma Noakes. Raven has been a presence for a little while in the Second Doctor Adventures, and she has been growing on me.

To be clear, this is a period after the Doctor was sentenced to exile in The War Games but before that sentence was actually carried out. He has yet to regenerate into his third incarnation. He has been reunited with Jamie and Zoe who are now older in this range.

Anyway, Alan Barnes usually comes through with some entertaining and pulls it off yet again.

The Haunted Windmill starts off with the Doctor, Jamie, Zoe, and Raven don’t want to be dragged back to Gallifrey, so they make their escape into a parallel universe and arrive on Earth in 1963, which is not entirely identical to what the Doctor remembers. After Jamie and Zoe suddenly vanish, the Doctor and Raven find an abandoned windmill where they must set up shop to repair the TARDIS. Detective Inspector Lethbridge-Steward, played by Jon Culshaw, is investigating a series of strange thefts. A ghost has been sighted on the marsh. A pair of youngsters are drawn into the Doctor’s presence. This reality may not be what the Doctor remembers, but dangerous adversaries are starting to find their way to him.

It’s not a bad start because the chemistry between the Doctor and Raven is really starting to develop with Jamie and Zoe sidelined. Although Padbury and Hines are still around as a part of their lineages, and it works well. In effect, the Doctor gains two new companions in the shape of Bertie and Lucius, played by Olivia Woolhouse and Ilan Galkoff, respectively.

Besides, who can fail to be intrigued by a haunted windmill?

The Crystal Ship is the second story and probably isn’t going to count as a favorite, but it’s a fine addition. Daisy Ashford makes an appearance as Liz Shaw, a role originally brought to life by her mother, Caroline John. The Doctor finds that an experimental rocket plane has been taken over by some familiar adversaries, but they have not encou8ntered him before in this altered reality.

There are some fun performances here. Roger Ringrose seems to really get into his role as the obnoxious Professor Quigley. I thought bringing Liz Shaw in was a bold decision, but it does work pretty well.

Michael Troughton continues to improve in his performance. He says that he is not trying to a carbon copy of his father’s performance in interviews and believes that his father would approve of his efforts to leave something of himself on the performance. He is probably right, so I try not to be too critical of his participation. What is more important is that Michael doesn’t manage to wreck the nostalgia and still keep his version of this Doctor familiar. He is accomplishing that much.

Anyway, I am not sure this is Barnes’ best effort, but it gets the job done and manages to keep me pretty close to the right amount of suspense.

Finally, this set comes to an end with The Hungry Glass in which the Doctor and Raven come across a peculiar mirror which contains something more than reflections. Another old friend is trapped behind the glass, and very familiar old enemies are also lurking. The Doctor’s past is converging on him even more, and his future becomes even more in doubt.

Overall, I did enjoy this set and the efforts to scramble the canon just enough to keep things interesting without tossing the whole history into the trash can.

Alan Banes was a great choice to continue this range. I am not one of those fans intrigued too much by the mythical season 6b, but Barnes does a good job playing with some of those concepts. Of course, I am willing to give a lot of leeway which it comes to the Second Doctor.

Book Review: A Temporary Assignment Nearly Kills Joe Pickett

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Nowhere to Run by C.J. Box is another solid installment in a pretty compelling series featuring game warden Joe Pickett.

Joe Pickett is wrapping up a temporary assignment in Baggs, Wyoming before returning home to his wife and daughters. He gets reports of some harassment of campers and an elk that was illegally butchered. Pickett looks into the matter and encounters a pair known as the Grim Brothers. When an attempted arrest goes very wrong, Pickett barely escapes with his life. There also seems to be a peculiar connection to an aspiring Olympic runner who had vanished a couple of years earlier. Pickett’s word comes into question when subsequent investigators can find no evidence of his harrowing ordeal with the Grim Brothers. Pickett has to decide if he needs to return to the mountain for the sake of justice and his peace of mind.

Box kind of flirts with the supernatural here when the legend of Wendigos is mentioned. A wendigo is a legendary evil spirit that can resemble a human that may eat human flesh.

Box does a pretty good job of threading together a pretty diverse set of unusual circumstances. Pickett also deals with the challenges of being a father of growing daughters, including a traumatized and sullen foster daughter. The devotion he has for his wife and daughters is rather moving and inspiring.

Pickett is a flawed yet unquestionably noble protagonist and is too often accused of being stubborn. It is an admirable stubbornness, however.

Box continues to be a competent writer and storyteller. He has a pretty good pace when it comes to letting the story unfold.

This novel does get better as more secretes are revealed. There is nothing too extraordinary about this particular installment in the series, but Box does a good job of keeping the reader’s attention.

I have decided to take a different literary path for the time being. The next read is Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States.

Doctor Who Audio Review: Another World Inside The Flat

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Snare is a Doctor Who audio drama from Big Finish Productions which reunites the dream team of Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper. Tim Foley is the writer with Henel Goldwyn directing once again. Camille Coduri returns as Jackie Tyler with Alex Austin and Hannah Brown rounding out the guest cast.

The Doctor and Rose Tyler have returned to the Powell Estate to take a brief rest from their recent adventures. A childhood friend of Rose’s has also returned after his father recently died. Kevin finds that his father had some otherworldly secrets tucked away, and the Doctor identifies a most unusual trap sprung by a hidden extraterrestrial vessel. Kevin’s father was known to have some mental issues, but something else seems to have been tormenting him. The Doctor finds that a brief rest is just not likely to be in the cards for him.

Foley delivers a good one here, and Eccleston and Piper slip into their best-known roles with ease. Coduri is also on her A game with her performance as well.’

The story does weave pretty easily between action and something a little more emotionally relatable. Foley offers a pretty compelling depiction of a complicated father-son relationship in a short time without compromising the main plot.

This episode is apparently kind of early in the Doctor and Rose’s relationship as well, and they are fresh off the heart-wrenching events of Father’s Day.

The Doctor is also at his most vulnerable due to the consequences of the Time War, and the decisions he had to make during that ordeal.

The episode has a sort of Jumanji vibe without directly stealing from it. There is no weird boardgame, but a strange wilderness seems to have merged with a flat.

Anyway, this episode gives a promising start to a new and unexpected range, and I have little reason to complain about more episodes featuring the pair that kicked off the television revival in 2005.

Audiobook Review: Poison In The Ink

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

The Skin Collector is a thriller written by the prolific and popular Jeffery Deaver and features the quadriplegic criminalist, Lincoln Rhyme. The audiobook is read by Edoardo Ballerini.

This time, Rhyme and his partner, Amelia Sachs, have a couple of investigations going. While Rhyme is somewhat morose over the death of a very worthy and dangerous adversary, another killer is on the loose. This particular unsub likes to tattoo his victims with a good dose of poison mixed into the ink. There seems to be a connection to another killer known as the Bone Collector, the case that brought Rhyme and Sachs together. As Rhyme and his team dig a little deeper, there seems to be a more complicated motive than just some depraved lunatic getting his kicks. In fact, a more lethal conspiracy seems to be in the making, and Rhyme and Sachs find that this killer may have infiltrated their haven and targeting those clostest to them.

Ballerini does a decent job presenting this story, but it’s not a plot that I found all that memorable. There were too many callbacks to previous cases. I confess that I have not read many books in this series, so I was a little handicapped when it came to recalling or understanding everything that led to this particular novel.

Deaver seems to be a little overly fond of providing somewhat outlandish monikers to his killers. Rhyme starts off this one reflecting over his mental duels with someone known as the Watchmaker, who had recently been reported deceased.

Anyway, Rhyme is just brilliant and curmudgeonly enough to stay interesting overall. Deavber had some pretty good and macabre twists. He is another writer where I can understand why he is such a following, but I doubt that I will be a consistent fan. I may not return to his works in a hurry, but I will likely find my way back to his catalog eventually.

Film Review: Bart Sees It All

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

The Night Clerk is an almost painfully mediocre suspense film written and directed by Micchael Cristofer about a motel clerk with Asperger’s Syndrome who sets up cameras in rooms to spy on guests so he can learn how to imitate their mannerisms. He apparently believes this will help him be less socially awkward.

Tye Sheridan is in the lead as Bart Bromley with Ana de Armas, John Leguizamo, Helen Hunt, and Johnathan Schaech included in the pretty small cast.

Bart finds that he is the lead suspect when a pretty lady is found dead in the motel room with him in the vicinity. He is assigned by a sympathetic boss to another location where he meets another pretty lady who flirts with him and reveals that she is in an affair with a married man. The detective, played by Leguizamo, continues to hound the hapless Bart while the real killer is desperate to cover his tracks.

This is a bit of a knock-off of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, which isn’t a bad source for inspiration even if it has been overcooked over the years. The cast is solid enough with convincing performances; however, it just feels so slow. There are no real surprises. Bart does come off as a bit creepy at times, so I found it hard to maintain any real sympathy for him. An actress of Helen Hunt’s caliber feels wasted in the role as Bart’s protective mother. There are also times where it feels that the killer takes a somewhat more convoluted approach than necessary to keep his secret. I can go on and on, but I have a full plate today.

The bright spots in this film were there but seemed a little muted at times. Overall, I think audiences have seen this kind of setup too many times, and Cristofer really doesn’t offer up much in the way of an interesting or unique twist. I didn’t really care much about the protagonist in spite of him being inflicted with a very challenging condition. Sheridan does do a solid job in his portrayal, but that wasn’t enough for me to muster up any real appreciation for the film as a whole.

Book Review: When Terrorists Meet An Executioner

~ Peter Kanelis ~ 4 Comments

Flight 741 is a 1986 adventure novel featuring Mack Bolan who is also known as the Executioner. Bolan was created by Don Pendleton many moons ago. I think the author of this particular one is a guy named Mike Newton who is given some sort of credit on the copyright page.

Anyway, this is obviously a leisure read in the extreme. It’s a fun indulgence but nothing too surprising here.

Mack Bolan is a super antiterrorist operative who has appeared in numerous novels probably about thirty to forty years ago. He was part of the men’s adventures range of Gold Eagle publishing. Each book had a significant body count because Bolan was not one to bother with courts and trials when it comes to terrorists.

In this particular installment, Mack Bolan is traveling under an alias from Munich to New York when his flight gets interrupted by a hijacking. He takes a pretty brutal beating when trying to save a flight attendant from certain indignities. Once the ordeal is over, Bolan is thirsty from some good old-fashioned vengeance. Unlike the most people, Bolan is more than capable of getting it. He embarks on a pursuit of a known terrorist who goes by the moniker of “the Raven” and finds this guy to be quite elusive, especially since he employs body doubles. He comes across an old flame who is no stranger to this type of danger, and his ruthless hunt is now tempered by his desire to keep another girl safe from aforementioned indignities. Anyway, Bolan is justifiably angry, and a group of crazy hijackers and their sponsors have well earned their executions.

So, the Mack Bolan series is not something to stimulate the higher intellects of the world. It is brutal and can really crank up the testosterone levels if one has an overactive imagination. It’s great even if the writing is not the best. No one is going for the Pulitzer here.

I liked the book because most of it is the aftermath of the hijacking and how Bolan settles the score. There are different perspectives, and the reader gets some more insight into the history of the villain as well. It’s still great when Bolan catches up to him and lives up to his own codename.

There are some efforts to flesh out supporting characters which I appreciated. There was some display of tenderness from Bolan when it came to his lady friend, Toby Ranger, who end up in danger. Bolan is the good guy, so that was not surprising, but it did lend itself to giving some depth. In spite of his more brutal proclivities, there is a sense of gallantry I can respect.

This isn’t a great novel by any means. The genre doesn’t quite lend itself to that, but it was enjoyable enough to make it likely for me to pick up another Mack Bolan escapade in the near future.

My next step on the pleasantly unending literary journey brings me back to Edward Rutherford with his novel of historical fiction entitled Paris. I had read London some time ago and enjoyed it, so I think I will see what his take on the City of Light.

Doctor Who Audio Review: Even The Short Trips Can Be Hazardous

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Doctor Who: Short Trip Rarities is a collection of audio short stories featuring the Eighth Doctor, as played by Paul McGann. McGann isn’t really in these since they are narrated by a pair of compelling performers. These stories were previously released only to Big Finish Productions subscribers. Hugh Ross narrates the first one while Stephen Critchlow relates the remaining three.

Late Night Shopping by Matt Fitton has the Doctor and Lucie Miller help a shop worker fend off some peculiar alien tomatoes or something like that. It’s a strange yet amusing tale. There’s not much very notable here, but at least it wasn’t terrible.

The Caves of Erith by Alice Cavender has the Doctor and Lucie spending Christmas at a remote village. There are some strange bats living nearby, and the innkeeper has a secret of his own.

This story was a little better. Steven Critchlow is a talented enough narrator. He has shown up in much of Big Finish’s works.

Tuesday by Tony Jones has the Doctor reunited with an old friend in the shape of Harry Sullivan, however Sullivan has no recollection of his previous encounters with the Time Lord. Also, this is no ordinary Tuesday. It is supposed to be Christmas, but that doesn’t appear to exist either.

I am not one who needs to have old companions revisited all the time, but I sort of liked this meeting. Harry is older and maybe a little wiser but still familiar. Jones did a good job imagining Harry at a different stage in life than what was seen onscreen.

Finally, Paul Starkey’s An Ocean of Sawdust brings this set to a close. The TARDIS brings the Time Lord to a young boy’s bedroom where a wooden eel acts as the flooring, and the boy won’t get off his bed, which he treats as a life raft. The Doctor may be trapped in someone’s imagination and is not sure how to return to reality.

A rather imaginatively surreal story is presented here that is a little hard to conjure in one’s mind.

This is a reasonably entertaining release, but there is nothing that really stands out here.

Book Review: It Doesn’t Always Glitter On The Gold Coast

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

The Gold Coast is a novel that is a little hard to categorize in the recognized genres. Nelson DeMille is primarily known as a suspense or thriller writer, but this one has a bit more meat to it.

John Sutter is a married Wall Street lawyer who lives on a prestigious stretch of shore on Long Island. He and his wife have an unusual and rather strangely kinky marriage. Anyway, their lives take an unexpected turn when a reputed Mafia don moves in next door. Frank Bellarosa certainly knows how to make an impression. A peculiar friendship develops between the two men, and Sutter gets a glimpse into a world darker than he can imagine. His life and marriage were already complicated enough before Bellarosa’s arrival, and these new developments are about to take him into deeper waters in which he may never be able to escape.

DeMille is known to give his protagonists a certain bit of wry sarcasm that is kind of distinctive and common. The novel is written in first person from Sutter’s point of view, and he tuns out to be an interesting guy even if his profession sounds a bit stuffy.

In this edition, DeMille has penned an introduction in which he considers this novel one of his best works, and he is probably right. I have not read many of his works, but I have been exposed enough to them to determine that he does have talent. Many of his characters do sort of run together because it seems most of them have a similar sardonic manner. Fortunately, DeMille is actually rather funny in his prose, so it’s not that annoying or distracting.

The story does have a slow burn at the beginning. There is a lot of exposition describing the layout of the Gold Coast and the particulars of Sutter’s marriage. There is a sense of authenticity in that Sutter’s situation is rather complicated, which is more often true in real life, particularly when it comes to those with wealth and large assets. This means that DeMille does a great job of making totally fictional characters at least plausible.

Although I could probably have lived without the gratuitous sexual shenanigans between Sutter and his wife, this novel was a good start to the reading journey of 2026. I did enjoy it very much even though it took me a little longer than I prefer to get through it.

I should also mention that this novel was published in 1990, so it was kind of nice to get a reminder of what the country was like back then and in an environment and lifestyle that I will likely never be able to touch. DeMille does a great job of sparking the imagination and nostalgia which is one of the many great joys of being an avid fiction reader.

Now, I will be turning into some more familiar territory on my next reading selection. It has been a few months since I checked in with game warden Joe Pickett and his family. This will have a somewhat ironic title since my neighbors and I have just endured quite a blast of frigid weather. C.J. Box is about to continue the exploits of Joe Pickett with Below Zero.